It’s a good thing for Nick Sirianni that he agreed with Jeffrey Lurie on the Eagles’ new coordinators

ORLANDO — Jeffrey Lurie, when he has felt the need, has asserted his authority when it has come to his head coach’s assistants.

But the Eagles owner said that he wasn’t the driving force behind Nick Sirianni firing his top two coordinators and the hiring of their eventual replacements after last season came to a crashing halt with a 1-6 finish.

“No, not at all,” Lurie said Tuesday during his first public interview since his team’s unprecedented collapse. “This was in the analysis of where we’re at. Nick really was adamant about having excellent coordinators. And it was something that literally came from Nick. I completely ratified it. I felt the same way.

“But it didn’t matter. I trust Nick and I trust [general manager] Howie [Roseman]. And if Howie says we’ve got to make a change in the way we look at certain things, I listen to Howie. If Nick says we need to have a more dynamic offense, or we need to have a defense in a different direction, I listen.”

Sirianni, up until the Eagles’ first-round exit from the playoffs, vociferously defended his offensive scheme. He was still citing its successes just last month at the NFL Scouting Combine. But nine days following the season-ending loss to the Buccaneers and lengthy exit interviews with Lurie that suggested his future was in jeopardy, the coach sang a different tune.

» READ MORE: Eagles’ Jordan Mailata on Brian Johnson’s firing: ‘Has to be a finger pointed somewhere’

Sirianni had already fired offensive coordinator Brian Johnson by the time he met with reporters on Jan. 24. But he also called his system “stale” and in need of an overhaul.

Lurie said Sirianni presented to him a plan that would essentially lessen the coach’s sway over the offense.

“The things with Nick I have to say were really impressive were wanting to truly improve the ingredients of the offense, truly improve in terms of leading the offense and the direction it would go, wanted to be much more innovative, much more dynamic,” the owner said at the annual NFL meetings. “Of course, bring the things that brought us a lot of success, but very open to finding the best possible offensive coordinator.”

Lurie said that he didn’t set the parameters for hiring Johnson’s replacement. The Eagles moved quickly and tabbed Kellen Moore just three days after Sirianni and Roseman spoke. Lurie said the 34-year-old former Chargers and Cowboys offensive coordinator was Sirianni’s first choice.

Three years earlier, Moore interviewed with the Eagles for the position Sirianni eventually won.

“I had the fortune of getting to know Kellen quite a bit in the head coach interviewing process,” Lurie said. “We all did and spent five, six, seven hours with Kellen. We were able to fully evaluate where we thought he was at that point. I rely on Nick’s judgment on this. On the other hand, I think internally we feel he’s one of the most dynamic offensive coordinators in football.

“We had to play against him every single year and he’s worked with outstanding young quarterbacks. He’s always had a difficult-to-defend multiple attack. And Nick, who is his biggest supporter in this, basically went through how he thinks Kellen will transform our offense into something that’s more unpredictable and more dynamic in a great way.”

» READ MORE: Nick Sirianni or Kellen Moore: Whose scheme will the Eagles offense reflect more of in ‘meshing’ two systems?

It was easier to make a change at defensive coordinator. Sean Desai had already been demoted in early December, so his firing was inevitable. And Sirianni hiring Vic Fangio as his successor was an obvious move since he had been employing a version of his scheme in his first three seasons in Philadelphia.

But sacrificing Johnson, who had been promoted just the year before after Shane Steichen left to become Colts head coach — and accepting that the offensive scheme that nearly helped the Eagles win Super Bowl LVII was suddenly ineffective — had to be difficult for Sirianni.

The offense finished the regular season eighth in total yards and seventh in points. But quarterback Jalen Hurts and the rest of the offense were inconsistent even as the team built a 10-1 start, and they soon became among the worst units over the final two months.

Lurie said “recency bias” didn’t factor into his evaluation of Sirianni, even though he admitted that he was “extremely disappointed” by the Eagles’ ending. But it’s fair to speculate whether Sirianni knew the answers to the test before meeting with his boss.

The owner had gotten involved and influenced his coach’s hires before, most notably with Doug Pederson. In the 2017 offseason, he blocked quarterbacks coach John DeFilippo from interviewing for the New York Jets’ offensive coordinator opening. Three years later, he helped steer Pederson into firing offensive coordinator Mike Groh.

That change was partly designed to appease then-quarterback Carson Wentz.

“I will never tell a coach who to hire, but I will evaluate a coach on exactly how good their staff is, how good their opposite-side coordinator is. All that stuff goes into play,” Lurie said two years ago. “Who’s going to develop our quarterback the best? Those are very important for a franchise.

“If I see a coach is hiring a coach who may not be ideal to advance that quarterback’s career, I’ve got to make a hard decision there, right?”

And that’s exactly what happened when Lurie didn’t approve of Pederson’s replacement choices following the 4-11-1 2020 season. Pederson declined to alter his plans, and he was let go even though he had won the Eagles’ first Super Bowl just three years earlier.

Sirianni has yet to have a losing season or one that ended short of the postseason. But his top-ranked offense regressed last season even though almost the entire starting lineup returned. Many outsiders blamed Johnson’s play-calling.

It was Sirianni’s scheme and game plan, however, even though he gave up play-calling midway through his first season. Lurie dispelled the notion that he only wants offensive-minded head coaches who call plays.

“It’s the head coach’s responsibility to have the plays called really well,” he said. “It doesn’t matter who is calling the plays. You want to have an excellent play-caller. Does that have to be the head coach? No.”

Sirianni will take on more of a CEO-type role. But it’s unclear how much of his offense he will retain. Details of how he will mesh his system with that of Moore’s were scarce when the coach sat with reporters earlier Tuesday at the Ritz-Carlton.

“I don’t even think we know that yet,” Sirianni said. “There’s a lot of concepts that are very, very similar, but I hired Kellen to do a job and we’ll mesh things together, just like I said right from the beginning. We’ll have some good things that we’ve done here in the past. He’s going to bring some new elements to it.

“But to say 27 percent is going to be this, there’s a lot of similarities within it, too.”

It won’t be just Sirianni who will have to adapt. Johnson was acquired and promoted partly because of his long-standing relationship with Hurts. The quarterback will yet again have to learn a new system.

But when asked if Hurts’ regression was more on him than outside factors, Lurie acquitted his franchise quarterback and defended him when the topic of his stoicism was brought up.

“I want him to be authentic and that’s what he is,” Lurie said. “It’s the worst thing to be 24, 25 and to try and be something. Be authentic as he is. He’s an excellent, excellent example. There’s times for the stoicism. When we were 10-1, people said it was because of Jalen’s stoicism and calm under the storm … in all those close games.

“And lose a few and maybe he’s not as demonstrative. I love the way Jalen is. I think he has his own style. Like every quarterback goes through ebbs and flows in their career.”

Lurie, whose ownership of the Eagles will hit 30 years in May, has seen it all. He has never had an offensive dynamic that will likely exist between a non-play-calling head coach and an offensive coordinator with schematic sway. Pederson hired Rich Scangarella before the 2020 season to bring in ideas from the Kyle Shanahan offense, but that never really came to fruition.

And when the season ended, Scangarella was out. If Sirianni had, like Pederson, refused to make changes to his staff, would Lurie have kept him? That is only a hypothetical. The question now is: Did Sirianni just buy himself time and is his seat as hot as any NFL coach entering next season?

“Every coach is in a high-pressured situation,” Lurie said. “Nick has had a pretty spectacular first three seasons and he’s shown all the ingredients to have outstanding success. So I’m just looking forward.”

What’s past is prologue, though.